COVID-19: crisis and opportunity. 3 steps to consider to turn this crisis into business opportunity.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying 'In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity', while John F Kennedy explained 'when written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity'. COVID-19 is a crisis! Its a medical crisis, an economic crisis and a human crisis and it's turned our world upside down and inside out. But there are still huge opportunities available for businesses and individuals.  

3 things you can do now to discover opportunities for your business

Step 1: Make ‘Know Your Client’ a strategic priority. Knowledge is power! Get closer to your clients during this time. Seek to understand them, their ecosystem, their needs and the changes they are navigating. These are unusual times and the more you know about your clients, the better you can support them and continue to remain relevant to them in the future.

It also gives you information on how to better plan for the future and mitigate risk.

A.S. Roma, an Italian football Club, has started delivering ‘Roma Cares’ care parcels to their senior season ticket holders. The parcel contains some essentials food and protective gear items, and additional items like a newspaper and a club scarf. This small gesture goes a long wall in cementing their supporters loyalty to the team, making their supporters feel appreciated and proud to be associated to a club that cares about its supporters and fans. The delivers also gives A.S. Roma insight into the impact that the virus has had on its ticket holders so they can include this information into operational plans for upcoming seasons.

Consider hosting a virtual coffee with your clients to check in with them.

• Pull a client contact list from your business systems.
• Sort and prioritise your list by the business metric most appropriate to your business.
• Start setting up your virtual coffees and having real conversations with your clients.

Whether you currently have only transactional or deep relationships with your clients you have an opportunity to build loyalty and business advocates.

Step 2: When business is slowing, give more. Add value and share knowledge! Share your service and ideas, exchange information and knowledge, and contribute to innovation. Seek to add value. Use this time to engage with your communities, exchange ideas, knowledge and insights, and collaborate throughout your business supply chain. The world is available to you and your business, people have time to learn and are actively looking for information, answers and entertainment.

George Calombaris, an Australian chef and restaurateur, has started a daily Instagram series called ‘5pm how to’, in which he shares tips, tricks and easy recipes with his followers. He shares the ingredients list the day before posting the cook along video, which allows his audience time to purchase the necessary items. And because he uses IGTV they are able to stop, start and consume the video at their convenience.

Joe Wick of Body Coach has an online body transformation business, where he provides exercise and meal plans to subscribers. While his business is probably unaffected during this time because of its nature, he has started free PE (physical education) classes on YouTube for school children stuck at home.

Both Joe and George are giving back during this time and reaping the rewards of higher exposure rates, building bigger communities, building their brand and ultimately building sales pipeline. Joe has received huge media coverage from his PE classes, while George will probably see an increase in book sales.

The golden opportunity for your business is to identify what gap your business can fill, virtually and possibly for free during this time, that can drive sales now or in the future.

Produce content that answers a question, fills a need or educates.

• Zero-rate or reduce the cost of a course and share it.
• Create a series unpacking a topic like digitalisation or payment holidays and make that available online or share with a selected audience.

You and your business are experts in your particular area and sharing your knowledge is the start point of the sales cycle.

Step 3: Define and then redefine your business purpose. Go back to basics! Identify ‘why’ your business exists. Remove all the layers of your business and answer the question what does my business do for my clients. Then redefine how your business can exist in a different world or expand on its offering to remain relevant.

WildEarth is a virtual Safari tour operator providing daily guided safari tours. By its nature Safari’s are unpredictable and high risk because you are exposing people to wild animals. Through virtual tours, this operator is able to expose wildlife in its natural habitat with no risk to their clients and limited disturbance to the animals. With travel bans the tourism industry is unable to operate but Wildlife and a number of other operators have turned virtual and opening themselves to new clients and bigger ‘tour groups’.

Netflorist was developed as marketplace that connects suppliers of flowers, treats and gifts to clients through a click of the button, taking the hassle out of delivering a gift to a loved one, friend or client. They have now expanded their offering to include essential items and groceries, now connecting smaller retailers to clients who possibly aren’t being serviced by larger retailer delivery services.

Virtual, digital or online services allow a business to provide services beyond physical constraints often at a lower operational costs but not all businesses can transform into a digital offering. While most business can improve their service by digitalising elements of its offering or partnering with 3rd party digital platforms, there are businesses that exist beyond the basic need it meets. Coffee shops, restaurants, shopping malls meet a basic need but also an emotional need that can’t be replaced by digital solutions.

Take a closer look at your business so that you can stay in business.

• Identify the main purpose of your business. A Safari operator allows people to observe animals in their natural habitat.
• Explore how you can deliver the core service in different ways. A Safari operator can expanded their vehicle or foot tours into virtual tours or virtual educational sessions.
• Expand on your core offering to meet the changing demands to stay relevant.

There is no silver bullet to dealing with any crisis. Every business is unique, some businesses will not survive this time but others will thrive. The difference will come down to business leadership and the opportunities that they create, identify and seize.

Be safe and stay at home!

Samantha